An Unexpected Ending

Puppydogging, Lilian had said. The embarrassment was excruciating, and I could feel my face burning up. In the awkward silence that followed, no one ventured to speak, and the word just seemed to hang there in the air until Pasqual’s announcement of the next event mercifully allowed the return of another conversation.

“The next game will be a good old-fashioned tug of war, so chalk your hands and gird your loins because everyone will be participating.”

“Everyone is participating, huh? How’s that fair? We have a guy without hands!” Joe whined.

“We’ll make a loop at the end of the rope for Bastian,” said Lilian.

“I’ll go up front,” said Tank. “I’m pretty steady on my feet.”

We went to line up as soon as possible so that we had plenty of time to tie the loop.

“I can’t believe I’m actually using this skill,” said Joe, as he tied the loop knot. “Knot tying, what a joke! At least it came in handy for something.”

I stepped into the hole, and Nory adjusted the rope around my waist. Joe was in front of me, and in front of him was Lilian–too close for comfort after our last interaction.

The round started and we won pretty easily. I looked around to see who else was winning their first bouts. Red had also won quite easily, and blue were steadily gaining ground. It took a few minutes for some of the matches. Yellow versus teal went down to the wire and was ruled a victory for teal because of a slight advantage. Black, orange, purple, and pink rounded out the eight teams which advanced.

“Has anybody else noticed we have the smallest team?” asked Hashi. “Wait, what the hell? I see eight people on some of these squads!” exclaimed Joe.

“It’s possible we’re missing someone,” said Lilian.

I glanced around and caught sight of a boy without a headband over by the snack table. The second round was starting and our opponent was the black team. I looked back over to the tables and saw the boy was still there.

“Hey Joe,” I said.

“What’s up?” asked Joe.

“You see that guy over there?”

“Son of–yeah I see him. I’ll go talk to him after this. He better not be on our team or he’s got it coming.”

The black team started out strong, and I felt like all I could do was dig in my heels to keep from falling over. Somehow we held on and managed to advance by decision.

Joe disappeared the moment the round was over. When he returned, he had his arm around a boy. Sam had short blond hair, blue eyes, and a round, childish face. I guessed he couldn’t be more than fifteen. He looked very uncomfortable with Joe’s arm around him, which I imagine was on purpose.

“Care to explain why you haven’t been with your team?” asked Joe.

“I was sleeping when he brought us here. I didn’t know I had a headband,” said Sam.

“So you wake up, you see all these people competing, and your first thought is ‘let me go to the snack table and eat all the muffins.’ Did I get that right?” asked Joe.

“No, there were other people who had some–”

Joe gave the back of his head a smack.

“Yes, I ate all the muffins–I’m sorry!”

Lilian sighed. “Well, the good news is that you’re here now and we haven’t been eliminated from the tug of war yet, so it’s doubtful you’ve hurt us any.”

“We haven’t heard your name or what class you were assigned,” said Nory.

“My name is Sam. I’m–uh–a ranger,” he said.

“Actually we could have really used you…” said Lilian.

“Sorry!” said Sam.

“Nothing we can do about that now,” said Lilian. “Just don’t wander off before our next round. It should be coming up.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” said Joe. “I’m not letting our young friend Sammy out of my sight.”

As we stepped up for the semifinal round I saw that we were up against the blue team. I pulled the loop around my waist and looked up to find Lilian staring at me. She was so close that I could see the two tones of her eyes–pools of bright aquamarine flecked with a dark indigo blue. For a few seconds she stood, looking at me like a vengeful angel, then at last she turned and walked to her place in line. Only when I relaxed did I realize I had been tensing every muscle in my body under the pressure of her gaze.

As the round started, the rope went taut. Of course, I couldn’t feel it–all I could feel was the pressure around my waist tightening, but I could hear it. The way rope hisses and crackles under pressure–I could hear it over the heavy breathing of exertion and the cheers and jeers of the crowd.

As I pulled and the rope hissed and rocked left and right but never budged, I suddenly had an odd sensation come over me. It was like everyone else disappeared, leaving only Ori and me. It was like I could feel her pulling, single out the tension in my waist which had its origin in her hands. For a split second I could feel my resolution waver as I thought of her, as I thought of what Lilian had said. I hated to be the reason she lost. The rope budged. We had only lost an inch, but it was the first movement of the bout. The next moment however, a totally different motivation washed over me. Was this not my opportunity to beat her? To prove my worth? To say "Ori, today you are against me so you must lose, but on every other day I will be beside you, and then, nothing shall stand in your way?" I heaved with everything I had in me, and recovered the forfeited inch. Again! Again! Each time I strained the rope came a little further. I shifted my feet, only a half step, but the rope stayed steady. I set my weight against it and felt it yield.

“Time!” shouted Pasqual. “Green team wins by six inches!”

As we left the competition area I plopped myself down in the grass with a sigh. Feeling satisfied with how I had acquitted myself in the round I cast a glance at Lilian. We locked eyes. She said nothing, but I did not look away, I was daring her to say I had not done my part.

“What? You want me to say ‘good job’ because you did what was expected of you? Get up, throwing yourself on the ground to show how hard you worked–it’s pure theatrics. You don’t see me rolling around in the grass.” Her face was glistening with sweat, and the outburst left her out of breath. To get up right away seemed like an admission that I was embellishing my fatigue–which of course I was–so I stayed on the ground, awkwardly looking around at my teammates' knees and experiencing a low point in my self-esteem.

“Man, is there something going on between you two I don’t know about?” asked Hashi. “Cause you are really laying into him today.”

Nory gasped. “I get it! You used to be a couple only it didn’t work out, but as luck would have it, you got put on the same team and because you have a bunch of pent up animosity and unresolved problems you feel the need to fight over every little thing!”

“Totally wrong,” I said.

“Eww, no!” said Lilian.

“Really, eww?”

“I mean have you looked at yourself recently?” asked Lilian.

“Oh yeah,” I said, as I once again found that my self-esteem had somehow sunk even lower.

“What do you really look like?” asked Nory. I could see even Lilian was interested by the question.

“I don’t know anymore. Kinda average I think.”

“That’s what an ugly person would say,” I could almost hear them all thinking.

Really I was relatively good looking, but I didn’t have nearly enough confidence to say so at that moment.

“Time for the final round of tug of war between the green team and the red team!” yelled Pasqual.

“Come on, everyone!” shouted Lilian. “Now is our chance to turn the tide! We can still win this competition! Let’s go show them what we’re made of!”

“Yeah!” we all cheered.

“Let’s do this!” Joe shouted.

The round started and the rope lurched forward as we tumbled into a heap with me on top.

“Huh, the semifinal was tougher than that!” I heard one of the red team members say.

“Yeah, no kidding!” agreed his teammate, laughing.

“Get...OFF OF ME!” shouted Lilian.

“Sorry!” I said, struggling to get up without the use of my arms.

“Still we got second, that’s worth some points,” I heard Nory say as we headed back through the crowd.

“I am never giving a motivational speech ever again as long as I live,” said Lilian.

“The next event is the three person chariot. Two people from your team must work together to carry a third person down to the end of the field, around the barrel, and back to the starting line without letting the rider touch the ground. But there is a twist, each team may produce two chariots. That means theoretically one team could walk away with both the first and the second prize.”

Lilian led the discussion as usual. “Obviously Nory and I should be the riders. For the boys, we’ll pair you up by height, meaning Bastian and Tank should be on different chariot teams. Honestly that’s too bad as I’d rather have you two than either of those two perverts,” she said, gesturing to Hashi and Joe.

“Really?” I said, almost teary eyed to receive a compliment from Lilian.

“Well, I trust him,” she said, pointing to Tank. “You’re just the pervert with no hands, which is second best under the circumstances.”

“You always find a way to insult me,” I said, deflating.

“She is seriously good at it,” said Hashi, laughing.

“I’ll go with Tank. As for you two, I guess it doesn’t really matter which of you goes where.”

“I’ll carry you, sweetheart, don’t worry,” said Joe.

“I’ll take Hashi,” she snapped.

“I guess that leaves us three,” I said, looking at Nory and Joe.

“Okay,” said Sam, “well, I’ll just go back to–”

“You’re going to stand right here and watch,” said Joe. “That way we don’t have to go find you before the next event if we need you.”

“Please don’t wander off,” said Nory.

“Alright, sheesh.”

“Okay, is everyone lined up? Let’s make this a little more interesting shall we?” Pasqual pointed at the field and snapped his fingers. Suddenly a canal appeared in the middle of the field, bisecting it, but before we had time to take this new obstacle into consideration he gave the signal to begin.

We had Nory sit on the barrel while Joe helped prop it up, which cost us a little time, but gave us a steady base as we ramped up our speed.

Nory cast her ability and the long grass grew short as a lawn before us making it easier to walk and avoid uneven places in the ground, but there were others using abilities with even greater impacts and we were only about the middle of the pack. By the time we reached the water, I could see there was a red team already half way across thanks to their abilities and the sheer strength of the big guy–the one who had punched me during the tutorial. Lilian’s team and the blue chariot with Leo and Ori were both level with us.

“We should make up ground here,” said Joe. “Water doesn’t drag on me since I’m an atlantean.” It was still work to support Nory, but I could feel Joe pulling us forward through the water much faster than I could walk. Lillian’s team went flying past us at full speed as if the water wasn’t there. Hashi’s ability, I thought.

As we reached the far side, Lilian was in front, and the red team was now about level with us. Suddenly I felt my feet slipping. I looked down and the bank was covered in mud. I turned to see how Lilian’s team was handling it and saw her cast a spell. A gust of icy wind rushed over the ground, freezing the mud.

“This way,” I cried, sidetracking to get in line behind Lilian’s team. We reached the top of the bank and rushed across the field towards the barrel, as the red chariot went shooting by us at full speed.

“They’re in a league of their own on the open ground,” I huffed as we rounded the barrel in third place.

As we reached the water again I noticed Lilian’s team wasn’t gaining any distance on red team. “That’s not good,” I said.

As we reached the far side all three of us were almost level.

We started up the bank neck and neck as the red team charged up to speed. “No! If red team wins this event there will be no way for us to make up the points!” cried Lilian.

“Then we can’t let them win,” said Hashi. “Sorry about this, Princess.”

“What are you talking about?” the girl demanded as Hashi stopped dead in his tracks, casting an ability. Their chariot tumbled into the grass, but as they did, the red chariot stumbled. We passed them both and found ourselves in front, racing to the finish line, but in the final moment the red team appeared, rushing past us.

“We lost?” I stammered, in disbelief. We’d been so close but somehow the red team still made it over the finish line before us.

I heard Lilian and Hashi coming up behind me, arguing.

“You could have warned me, you know!”

“I did,” said Hashi.

“Besides, that was a rule violation. It disqualified us from the competition. You cost us a second palace finish!”

“We’ll have to wait and see,” said Hashi.

“Wait and see what?” asked Lilian, too flustered to see his meaning.

“I think he means that the rule was a little ambiguous, at least in this particular event,” I said.

“What a finish!” said Pasqual, cutting our conversation short. “You definitely stepped up your use of abilities in that last match! Color me impressed. After that photo finish I’m sure you are all wondering who the winner is, but first I need to make a ruling. I told you earlier that using an ability directly on an opponent would result in disqualification. I therefore have no choice but to disqualify Hashi and his teammates from this event. That means that second place goes to the blue team, congratulations! And in first–daringly exploiting an ambiguity in the ruleset–we have the green team!”

I looked at Lilian for an explanation, but found her staring blankly into space, evidently as shocked as I was.

“What? But they should be eliminated!” said a member of the red team who had been on the other chariot.

“That shouldn’t even matter. We crossed the line first!” shouted the big guy.

Pasqual smirked. “You did cross the line first, but unfortunately your rider put her foot down when you stumbled, and that means you are disqualified!”

“Sorry! It was a reflex!” said the girl.

The big guy glared at us for a moment then turned to his teammates. “Whatever, we’re still going to win. Let’s go get ready for the next event.”

“So what did you do?” asked Tank, as we all crowded around Hashi.

“I just used my ability when I saw we had no other option,” he said with a grin which oozed self-importance.

“Wow, Ghost, good thinking,” said Joe.

Lilian said nothing.

Hashi opened one eye to look at her. “You don’t have anything to say about how I kept the red team from winning the whole competition and got us first place?”

“I can’t believe he didn’t disqualify us all for that. What you did was cheating, plain and simple,” Lilian said, sucking her lip.

“Come on, would it kill you to give me a compliment?”

Lilian sighed. “I still think you could have put me down instead of dropping me, but it was a good plan. Reckless–but what the situation demanded. Good job, Hashi.”

“Thank you, Princess.”

“Now stop calling me Princess,” said Lilian.

“Not gonna happen Princess.”

“Oh, why were you guys so slow the second time across the river?” I asked. “The first time you were like a motor boat, but the second time we caught up to you.”

“It was Hashi’s ability. The same one he used in the tutorial,” said Lilian. “It wasn’t off cooldown again by the time we got back to the water so we just had to wade through.”

“I didn’t realize it worked on anyone else,” I said.

“Yep, anyone I’m touching when it activates,” said Hashi, flexing his hand. He smiled at me, and he genuinely looked so friendly. It gave me the creeps to think he could be such a good actor.

“That brings us to our penultimate event–that’s the second to last for those of you who weren’t good at English–which is…war ball!”

“What’s war ball?” asked Lilian.

“Please select six players from your team to participate, and come on down!”

“Well that’s me out,” I said.

“I guess that means it requires hands?” said Lilian.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s like dodge ball only there are lots of little balls.”

“Guess that means you’re up Sammy. Wait, where’s Sam?” In a moment, we had all turned to look at the snack table.

“I’m right here, guys! Jeez!” he said, standing behind Tank on the other side of the circle.

“Oh, I didn’t see you there,” said Tank, chuckling.

“Actually you guys are lucky because you’re looking at the Lincoln Elementary war ball champ!”

“Elementary…” we seemed to sigh at once.

“Hey, it was like sixth grade, and I just haven’t played it since. I am in high school, you know.”

“Whatever, it’s not like we’d bring him,” said Joe, as they started walking away.

“They aren’t even gesturing at me anymore when they say that,” I sighed.

I went to the snack table and got a drink before heading over to watch the event. There were only a couple dozen people not competing, so I spotted Ori right away.

“Hey! They didn’t want you in this one?”

“Oh hey!” said Ori, smiling. She seemed to consider giving me a hug, but didn’t. She cleared her throat. “No, I kinda excused myself. When it comes to throwing–”

“You throw like a girl,” I suggested.

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” she said with a chuckle.

“I’m sure if you gave it some practice you’d have it down in no time–you have the body for it.”

Ori blushed. “Thanks,” she said dizzily.

“Sorry, that came out wrong. I only meant you’re athletic.”

“Anyway...So, how has the event been? You have some heavy hitters on your team: Lilian and Hashi.”

“It’s been pretty weird. Hashi makes my skin crawl and Lilian–” puppydogging flashed through my mind–“we don’t really get along either,” I said, turning away.

“Huh, I kinda thought she and Leo were similar, and he’s easy to get along with.”

“Yeah, I think they’re pretty different,” I said with a chuckle. “Both smart but totally different personalities.”

“Oh, maybe I’m not a good judge of character,” said Ori thoughtfully.

“Don’t say that, you’re the only person who likes me,” I thought.

“Oh, look, they’re starting,” she said.

We moved closer to get a better view of our teams. She was reacting to the match with gasps and exclamations, but I just kept staring at her face. The way it was so passionately illuminated transfixed me so much that I barely watched the game.

“Aww that’s too bad,” she said, turning to look at me.

“That’s okay. You can always win the next event,” I said.

“Huh? It’s your team that’s out. My team’s doing great.” I looked back at the match in time to see Leo throw two balls simultaneously, each hitting an opposing player.

“Oh, sorry, I was just talking to myself.”

“Oh,” said Ori, turning back to the match. “Go Leo! Woo!” she yelled.

At that moment I felt a twinge of jealousy. I hated seeing her cheer on Leo. Turning away I met Lilian’s eyes as my defeated team went sulking past us.

“Hey Ori, I need to go,” I said.

“Okay,” she said cheerily, her eyes still radiantly fixed on the match.

I didn’t go. I felt there was something else I needed to tell her–something else I needed to admit. I was in love with her–a girl with a fiancé. I’d been avoiding that fact for a while. “I think we need to go our separate ways,” I said at last.

“Alright, see you later,” she said, absently.

For a second I thought about correcting her. “No,” I told myself, “now’s not the time.”

I walked slowly back to my group, not anxious to deal with Lilian’s uncomfortable stares. I didn’t expect to come face to face with her, halfway back. She looked at me suspiciously.

“You were right,” I said. “I was… obsessing over her, and that needs to end.”

Lilian smiled at me a little sympathetically. “Come on,” she said.

The last game was a soccer tournament. Once the other team realized they could kick the ball into my barrel and Pasqual would award them a penalty kick it was all over. The teal team ended up taking it, meaning that the blue team won the competition with two firsts and two seconds beating out the red team who had two firsts as well but only one second. Our team tied with the teal team for third and fourth, but there were no consolation prizes except the few points we secured for our placements.

Lilian sighed, and I half expected her to launch into a tirade, but to my surprise her tone was easy. “I know I was tough on you all today, and I want to say thank you for your hard work.”

“Thank you, Lilian,” said Tank, teary-eyed. “You were the best leader we could have asked for. I’m sorry we couldn’t win.”

“You don’t owe me an apology. They beat all of us because today we weren’t good enough. Just know that next time, whether you’re on my side or against me, I will be winning.”

“You tell ‘em” said Hashi, smiling.

“Good luck, everyone,” I said.

“Good luck,” they said, shaking each other’s hands while I stood there awkwardly.

“Good luck,” said Lilian, touching my arm.

“Thanks, you too,” I said.

She gave me a sort of smile, and turned away.

“Before you go, I do have a few announcements to make,” said Pasqual. “Firstly, going forward, these events will not be mandatory. Each of you should find a map in your inventories. Consider it a quality of life update. Right now, it will be mostly blank, but as you explore Eutopia the places you go will automatically populate. The location will appear on the map for all future events one week ahead of time, even if it is someplace you haven’t been. There will of course be points up for grabs at these events, but it is up to you to decide if they are the best use of your time.

“Lastly, I have a sad announcement. Some of you may have noticed that there are a few players who have not joined us today for various reasons. Daren the thief has sadly been eliminated from the competition after dying to one of the monsters of Eutopia. Additionally, Sally the fire elemental passed away unexpectedly due to outside complications of her condition. Finally, Duncan the sage requested to be removed from this experience, and after speaking with the Doctor, he will not be returning to Eutopia. To all of you still here, the Doctor, myself, and our team continue to wish you good luck.”

Suddenly I noticed Ori was standing next to me.

“Hey, you won! Congrats!” I said.

“Thanks,” she said smiling. “I’m sorry, I feel like you were trying to talk to me earlier, and I wasn’t really paying attention. Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?”

“I’ll tell you when we get back,” I said.

“Till next time,” said Pasqual, raising his arms. I wondered, was I just being self-conscious, or was he really looking at me? Then, the field fell away and a new scene came into view, only it wasn’t the mountain where I had been with Ori. I turned around and made eye contact with Lilian.

Her eyes narrowed into a squint, “No…”